LeBron.

The Heat star had 45 points – 30 in the first half as the Heat rolled over the lackluster Celtics 98-79 to force a game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals on Saturday night.

This seemed like a Sports Guy “reverse lock” game if there ever was one. After all of the media had been picking and praising Miami, after game five, everything turned, and just about everyone – media, fans – had the Celtics closing things out last night at home, with the mentally fragile Heat wilting at the Garden.

Now the tide will shift the other way – very few people will predict that the Celtics can win another game in Miami. We’ll see. This is why they play the games.

NBC Hopes For Triple Crown In Belmont Stakes – My SB Nation Boston media column was rendered rather moot this morning when news came out that I’ll Have Another has been scratched. Still, you can read and see what NBC Executives were hoping a Triple Crown could mean.

A quick reminder about the upcoming 11th annual Tradition which benefits The Sports Museum, on Wed. June 27 at 5:30 PM.

This year’s Lifetime Achievement Award will go to three-time Cy Young award winner and member of the 2004 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox, Pedro Martinez. Alexi Lalas, Soccer Hall of Famer, trailblazer and founding player of the New England Revolution will receive the Soccer Legacy Award. Jeremy M. Jacobs, chairman and chief executive officer of Delaware North Companies for four decades, philanthropist and longtime owner of one of the NHL’s most storied franchises, the Boston Bruins, will be presented with the Hockey Legacy Award. The epitome of excellence and the backbone of the 1980’s Boston Celtics, Robert Parish, will be the recipient of the Basketball Legacy Award. Title IX pioneer, Yale oarswoman, two-time Olympian and star of the award winning documentary “A Hero for Daisy”, Chris Ernst, will be honored with the Special Achievement Award. Former New England Patriot, known as the locker room leader and hard-hitting Super Bowl safety, Rodney Harrison will receive the Football Legacy Award.

Tickets are $200 for general admission and $300 for reserved seating. All net proceeds benefit The Sports Museum. For more information, to purchase tickets and for sponsorship opportunities, please visit www.sportsmuseum.org

Thursday night’s NBA Eastern Conference Finals Game 6 on ESPN – the Miami Heat defeated the Boston Celtics to even their series at 3-3 – generated an 8.2 overnight rating, the highest overnight for an NBA game ever on cable (records back to 2003), according to Nielsen. The 8.2 for Game 6 surpasses the previous record, a 7.9 for Game 4 of this series, as the best overnight ever.

The 8.2 overnight rating is up 49 percent compared to the most recent Game 6 on ESPN – Boston/Orlando in the 2010 Eastern Conference Finals – which posted a 5.5.

In Miami, Game 6 delivered a 22.0 rating, the highest-rated NBA playoff game on ESPN in the market. In Boston, the game averaged a 20.5, the second highest-rated NBA game on ESPN in the market.

ESPN will televise Heat-Celtics Game 7 on Saturday, June 9, at 8:30 p.m. ET. The Finals on ABC will begin Tuesday, June 12 at 9 p.m.

Lost in the “Is Breen a biased announcer” discussion was the fact that Breen is a really bad broadcaster. He’s much like Thanksdad Joe Buck (who himself is terrible) in the incessant need to push storylines into every moment of a game and Breen is completely unable to let the game speak for itself. He’s the annoying flashboy turned national announcer.

Mike Breen is horrible; absolutely horrible – no other way to describe him. If that’s the best ESPN can do they should not bid for NBA broadcast rights anymore. Someone on twitter suggested everybody write to the ESPN Ombudsman and complain about Breen and it wasn’t a Boston fan it was a fan of the NBA.
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After Minihane calls out Haggs, Haggs goes on the defensive with the “But you’re not in the locker room”. (This is sad because the King of all trolls, Felger, demolished Peter Gammons on this very point a few weeks back.) Minihane says “You comment on the Celtics and other matters all the time and have spent 0 time in their lockerroom” (paraphrasing here).

Awesome.

Kudos to CSNNE for setting this up. When media wage this “asymmetrical
warfare”, I find it infuriating. Separate the facts from opinion and state as so. Most reasonable people will have much less of a problem if you do. Most of the mainstream journalism and media has relegated and devolved as to where this is normal practice, but it’s nice when you can put two folks together. I’d say the debate was fairly mature but Haggs wasn’t prepared to be called out, nor confronted with it.

This reminds me of when: Jalen Rose absolutely torched Skip Bayless on First Take? Yup, he did. If you missed it:

Where it should be. The outrage between the high ticket prices and the lackluster play on the field (injuries notwithstanding) should be a huge story in Boston. Not the old-azz that really had no shot against the refs and younger NBA ( just look at who’s in the Finals).

SELLOUT STREAK: The Red Sox now officially own the longest
regular-season sellout streak in major professional sports history. The
37,467 in attendance Sunday at Fenway Park extended the streak to 745
consecutive games, surpassing the previous record of 744, which was held
by the Portland Trailblazers of the NBA from 1977 to 1995. Boston’s
streak began on May 15, 2003.